Germany’s Parliament (Bundestag) has received the votes necessary to remove a section of the Criminal Code which made the possession of child sexual abuse materials a felony crime. Once the bill, passed last Thursday, comes into effect, minimum sentences for the possession of child pornography will be reduced, and the offense will be downgraded to a misdemeanor.
According to the Bundestag, the bill stipulates that “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”
The possession of child sexual abuse materials was first classified as a crime in 2021 after Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) introduced a minimum sentence of one year for the offense. The move classified the act as a felony, which it remained for three years until this most recent downgrade.
Responding to the passage of the bill, chairman of the association “German Children’s Aid – The Permanent Children’s Representation” (Deutsche Kinderhilfe – Die ständige Kindervertretung), Rainer Becker, pointed out that Germany could violate a directive from the European Union that classifies any child pornographic media as a serious criminal offense with the change to the law.
A statement of opposition was released by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). “The distribution, possession and acquisition of child pornography must, in principle, remain classified as crimes,” reads the declaration.
“Even if the increase in the penalty range in Section 184b of the Criminal Code in 2020 has led to practical problems in certain cases, a blanket reduction in the penalty range is the wrong solution. A change should be limited to the problem cases and solve them effectively. Scientific findings show that if the penalty framework shifts downwards, the penalties imposed in practice also tend to be lower.”
The rationale behind the downgrading of the crime to a misdemeanor included consideration for parents and teachers of children who download the content in order to inform law enforcement. “Such cases have occurred particularly frequently among parents and teachers of older children or young people who found child pornography on them and passed it on to other parents, teachers or the school management to inform them of the problem,” reads Article 1 of the bill.
The legislation continues: “A downgrade to a misdemeanor is also urgently required in order to be able to respond appropriately and with the necessary flexibility to the large proportion of juvenile offenders. Here, too, the perpetrators generally do not act in order to be sexually aroused by the child pornography content, but rather out of a drive typical of the adolescent stage of development, such as naivety, curiosity, thirst for adventure or the desire to impress.”
However, despite acknowledging such circumstances, the bill has not made certain exceptions, but rather downgrades possession of child pornography altogether – a fact that has not gone unnoticed by pro-pedophile campaigners.
The move has already been praised by a notorious German pro-pedophile activist group. Known as Krumme-13, or simply K13, the activist group has been described as a “self-help” organization for “pedosexuals.”
In a blog post written by its founder and dated May 17, K13 laments that “no politician in all factions apologized to the thousands upon thousands of those affected who fell victim” to the 2021 law which had made possession of child sexual abuse materials a felony.
K13 further advises all visitors to their site to have any relevant defense lawyers “submit applications for stays of proceedings on behalf of their clients in ongoing proceedings,” in order to wait out the period of time until the law goes into effect.
The notorious group was founded by Dieter Gieseking, who has been repeatedly charged with the possession of child pornography.
In 1996, Gieseking was sentenced to eighteen months, for which he served one year in prison, on charges related to operating a mail order child pornography service from a van. In 2003, Gieseking again appeared in court accused of possession of child sexual abuse materials obtained between July 1999 and January 2001. The pornography was found on Gieseking’s computer after a search of his residence in August 2001. His devices contained a total of 216 image files of naked children, and he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
At the time, Gieseking was also accused of linking to a child pornography page on his website. This link was discovered by jugendschutz.net, an organization set up by the federal government to protect minors online.
In a 2014 interview with Taz Online, Gieseking called for lowering the age of consent to 12 years of age, and said that adult sexual interactions with toddlers would have to be “discussed separately.”
“The taboo of pedophilia must finally be broken at all levels of society. If a pedophile can come out without fear of exclusion or even demonization, then this is the best prevention against child abuse,” Gieseking told the outlet.
“For babies and toddlers and elementary school students, the sexual component in such a ‘relationship’ is problematic. This would have to be discussed separately. From a sexual policy perspective, an age of consent (age of consent) of 12 is appropriate and long overdue in today’s enlightened society. There are boys and girls who take the initiative in a friendly and sexual relationship with a pedosexual. Therefore, there is a need for sexual criminal law reform that does justice to everyone involved.”
Through K13, Gieseking and his supporters lobby for lowering the age of consent and legalizing child pornography. K13 also campaigns for decriminalizing sexual relations between adults and children.
“Legalizing clearly self-determined sexuality between older people and those under 14 is the best protection against actual sexual violence against children,” Gieseking wrote in another petition to the government, while calling for the abolition of Sections 176 [Sexual Abuse of Children] and 188 [Dissemination, Acquisition and Possession of Child Pornographic Content] of the legal code.
Gieseking has been lobbying the government for changes to legislation for several years. Last fall, the Bundestag accepted a petition on children’s rights authored by Gieseking which amends Article 6 of the Basic Law to add statements regarding children’s rights, and states that “children should be viewed as legal subjects with their own rights.”
Among the rights listed within the petition’s text is the assertion that children have “the right to have a say in all matters that affect their emotional, mental and physical well-being,” and “the right to the free development of their personality.”
“Sexual self-determination” is included in Article 2 of the Basic Law under the phrase “free development of personality,” a fact that Gieseking made certain to point out to his followers on his website.